The Calendar Says 2013, but It Feels Like 2016

Is Vice President Joe Biden contemplating a run for the White House in 2016?

There are still roughly 1,000 days before voting gets underway in the 2016 presidential primary process, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the political headliners appearing at dueling Democratic and Republican Party dinners in Columbia, S.C., Friday night.

Vice President Joe Biden will address the South Carolina Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner and is also expected to attend Rep. Jim Clyburn’s “World Famous Fish Fry.”

Rubio, meanwhile, has raised his profile by championing the bipartisan immigration reform bill that he helped craft with seven other members of the Senate. He defended its elements Friday in the Wall Street Journal’s op-ed pages. In the piece, he addresses the criticism coming at him from people who view the measure as offering undocumented immigrants “amnesty”:

And for those who believe the road ahead for illegal immigrants is too generous or lenient, Congress will have a chance to make it tougher, yet still realistic. No one has a right to violate the immigration laws and remain here with impunity. Finding a sensible way to resolve our illegal-immigration problem must include penalties that show the rest of the world that it really is cheaper, easier and faster to immigrate to the U.S. the right way.

Of course, there are those who will never support immigration reform no matter what changes we make. Even if we address every concern they raise, they will likely come up with new ones. They have a long list of complaints but typically never offer a solution of their own.

Rubio closes by going after the politics at hand: “[D]efeating it without offering an alternative cannot be the conservative position on immigration reform. That would leave the issue entirely in the hands of President Obama and leave in place the disastrous status quo.”

The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker raises the curtain on Biden’s visit to the Palmetto State, which holds critical early primary contests for both parties.

For Biden, who, his family and advisers say, is weighing whether to run in 2016, several paradoxes are at work. He is beloved by grass-roots Democrats, but mainly as the avuncular No. 2 to Barack Obama. From the South Carolina Lowcountry to the Iowa heartland, there are no signs — none yet, at least — of a “Draft Joe” movement. “There just isn’t,” said Sue Dvorsky, a former head of the Iowa Democratic Party.

The Democratic women’s group EMILY’s List, meanwhile, is laying the groundwork to make 2016 another history-making election. Enter “Madam President.”

As Terence wrote Thursday, the group unveiled its campaign to elect the first female president of the United States, the same morning a new poll found former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2016.

“I have to say, there is one name that seems to be getting mentioned more than others,” EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock told reporters. “We do not know if Hillary is going to run, but we are hopeful that she may.”

(Speaking of female candidates, Schriock also suggested she might run for the Montana Senate seat being vacated by veteran Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who is retiring.)

If all this weren’t enough, C-SPAN on Friday is starting Road to the White House 2016.

As we’ve noted a few times, yes, it’s early. But when it comes to presidential politics, it’s really never too early to speculate.

LINE ITEMS

Biden told law enforcement officials Thursday that he plans to stump around the country for expanded background check legislation — a plan he hasn’t cleared with President Barack Obama.

Voting for the background check amendment that failed in the Senate has boosted homestate support for Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., according to a poll Thursday from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling.

In the Washington Post, Sandhya Somashekhar examines how some states are scrambling against a deadline over changes to Medicaid.

The Republican group focused on rapid response has a new Tumblr. It has looks at the Virginia governor’s race here and here.

Reuters profiles the mail center for Congress, an undisclosed location 10 miles from Washington where employees “in protective garb go envelope by envelope through millions of letters destined for the Capitol to thwart mail-borne bioterrorism threats like the recent ricin scare.”

The National Review’s Robert Costa reports Doug Stafford is leaving his role as chief strategist in Rand Paul’s Senate office to run the national political operation for the Kentucky Republican ahead of a potential 2016 presidential bid.

First there was Mr. Obama’s joke at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner about having a drink with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Then McConnell responded. And now there’s this.

The day after the Department of Justice announced it would repeal a federal court’s ruling lifting the age restriction for over-the-counter access to the morning after pill, Jeffrey Brown spoke with NPR’s Julie Rovner about the decision.

With Mr. Obama south of the border, Judy Woodruff talked with Shannon O’Neill and Diana Negroponte, senior fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations and Brookings Institution, respectively, about the president’s priorities and the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

In Gwen’s Take, Gwen Ifill points to three conflicts that show “how complicated it can be for a president to treat his second term as if there is nothing to lose.”

Presidential candidates from 2012 are not alone in having outstanding campaign debt, reports the Center for Public Integrity. They’ve got company from as far back as 1984.

Kaiser Health News explores Arkansas’ plans to privatize its Medicaid expansion and how the model could be adapted in other states.

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